U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,484 B1, issued Jun. 3, 2003, to Carley ('484 patent) discloses a method for emergency service information access via a wireless telephone. The '484 patent, however, fails to disclose subscriber emergency information available across various different telecommunications platforms and architectures, including VoIP, and fails to associate subscriber identity to subscriber emergency information independently of the communication device, network, or platform, used to access the subscriber information.
Security system and home monitoring providers such as ADT offer subscriber's security and emergency services based on proprietary methods that do not tie into E-911 calls in the telephone/VoIP network. Through proprietary security systems in the home, a call may be triggered to a security provider, who then contacts an emergency care provider on behalf of the user as deemed necessary.
Emergency solutions provided by home monitoring providers such as Brinks offer a two-step process in which the service dials for medical or fire assistance on behalf of the user. The service, however, does not extend to roadside emergency assistance such as required in a traffic accident. On the other hand, telematics providers, such as GM's Onstar®, assist with roadside emergency automatically for cases when airbags get deployed. These and similar services are specialized, niche services that do not encompass all emergency or non-emergency situations, may or may not federate emergency data and do not work implicitly with every 911 call from any device over any network.
An Enhanced Emergency Service Provider (EESP) and an enhanced emergency information service as provided by the present invention has not been described or implemented in the PSTN or an IP based environment. From a subscriber standpoint, the lack of an EESP requires that an individual subscribe to multiple services (such as ADT, Onstar, and the like) to avail the same benefits as the invention. Various embodiments of the invention are selectively realized in a variety of architectural options in the PSTN and VoIP worlds, including wireline, wireless or data environments.
There is a need, therefore, for systems, methods and services to portably access subscriber emergency information, and to correlate subscriber identity with subscriber emergency information, independently of the communication device, network, or platform.